#7 Question: What’s up with Pharoah?

Sometimes we do not understand or obey authority. Can you remember a time when a teacher on the playground forcefully told two students not to go after the football that had bounced into the street? One responded, “I don’t have to obey you. You’re not my teacher.” A few minutes later, both found themselves in the principal’s office who explained in clear language that all playground teachers had authority and all students had to obey.

The same situation arose for Sally in the break room at lunch. She was brushing large potato chip crumbs off onto the floor when someone said, “Hey, don’t do that. you’re making a mess.” Sally responded, “I don’t have to listen to you. You’re not my boss.” The man who had spoken was a new vice president that she didn’t recognize. Sally was almost fired.

Pharoah had the same attitude when he faced Moses the first time and heard what God wanted, Exodus 5:1-2:

“Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’” But Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.”

In this situation, it is clear that Pharoah did not recognize the Lord as the all-powerful God of the universe.

At this time, the Israelites were Pharoah’s slaves. Since he was considered a god by the Egyptians, he apparently didn’t feel compelled to obey the true God and let the Israelites go worship. That day, in retaliation, he increased the workload of the slaves, Exodus 5:6-9:

“The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, “You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as in the past; let them go and gather straw for themselves. But the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them, you shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.’ Let heavier work be laid on the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words.”

Unrealized by Pharoah, this rejection and added workload for the slaves divided Egypt into two camps: On the one hand was Pharoah and the Egyptians. On the other hand, was God and the Israelite slaves. What happened next was a long series of confrontations and nine plagues sent by God to convince Pharoah, the Egyptians, Moses, and the Israelites that God is the only true and powerful God of the universe. (Each of the plagues showed a particular Egyptian god with no power.) But Pharoah’s heart remained hardened.

God sent a tenth and final plague: a death angel would pass over Egypt and destroy the first born in every family. However, the first born of the Israelites would be saved because God had instructed the Israelites to sacrifice a lamb and sprinkle its blood over the door of each house. All who did so were saved.

Pharoah’s heart was hardened until this tenth plague which killed his first born as well as all the other first-born Egyptians. Pharoah then demanded that Moses and the Israelite slaves leave immediately, Exodus 12:29-32:

“At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead. Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Up, go out from among my people, both you and the people of Israel; and go, serve the LORD, as you have said. Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also!”

What can be learned from this incident and these ten plagues?

  1. God is all powerful. His purposes cannot be stopped or thwarted.
  2. We should live our lives according to His rules and desires as found in the New Testament. That means we should avail ourselves of the sacrifice of His Son on the cross in order to have our sins forgiven, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4:

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,”

  1. We should obey God as found in the New Testament because He will call all of us to judgment, Hebrews 9:27:

“And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,”

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